[ABHI_1512]

Having grown up in the mountains and I have been fortunate enough to travel through many twisting and turning roads over the years. Even a stretch of 12 kms between the twin capital cities of Arunachal Pradesh also had some real twists along the two laned highway and I don’t remember how many times I have driven my bike over while enjoying the drive. But if I have really name some stretches then here is the list of some :

1. Sela pass while travelling to Tawang is a narrow two lane road which is quite enthralling and challenging to drive on when the vagaries of nature show up.

2. Zuluk loops in Sikkim has its twists and turns and the road is good enough to enjoy the drive without any drama. The real challenge is if it’s snowing and then it becomes one challenge.

3. Purely from the driving point of view, I find the Guwahati- Shillong bypass- Jowai bypass a gem of a road with ample amount of twists and turns to satisfy your driving demon. The road though has very minimal banking sides and becomes extremely risky during the rains.

4. Down South, as has been mentioned above, the Ooty-Gudulur-Bandipur stretch is one picturesque road to drive with nice twists to keep you interested.

5. In Bhutan, there is this stretch from Wangdue to Phobjika which has fantastic surface and with some beautiful turns is just great to drive on.

6. Siliguri to Darjeeling can be reached by many ways but it is the Pankhabari route to Kurseong which is a driver’s delight if you love hairpin bends with steep inclines. Given a chance, I always take this road instead of the now usual Rohini road to Kurseong.

Some pictures:

Gudulur- Ooty stretch


Wangdue- Phobjika stretch


Shillong bypass

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Western Ghats might have some decent twisties, but they hold no water to the ones up north in the Himalayas.

On a recent trip in Himachal Pradesh traversing the Himalayas on a Himalayan (heh ), we had a swell time - there are so many twisties that I doubt any of my pics would do them justice. But if I had to put one, I'd just put this of a small mountain near Tirthan valley in HP.

Is this on the way to Jalori pass while coming from Shimla side?

[Mortis]

Not a proper road per se but thanks to Google Maps we accidentally stumbled upon a Military road somewhere in Maharashtra. It was only protected by a loose gate and we thought it had just been temporarily sealed off after resurfacing, waiting for some politician to come along for ribbon cutting and horn tooting.
That road might have been maybe 5-7km long, certainly less than 10km, fantastically maintained with a lot of dips and slopes and twists and turns, it was a truckload of fun even in a fully loaded petrol Jazz. Luckily the sentries at the other end let us go through after a bit of explaining and pleading. I tried to insist that we go back through and return via the proper road, knowing that I wouldn't ever be able to get on this one again but no luck !!

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

Is this on the way to Jalori pass while coming from Shimla side?

No this is in Tirthan valley, adjacent to the Tirthan river. The climbs are to a GHNP (Great Himalayan National Park) Rohla, which unfortunately was closed to public back then. It's a single lane road leading to a closed endpoint at the top.

Check out the maps link; the twists are visible.

[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by megazoid

Something like this in the Nilgiris for example comes to mind.

Dangerous driving.

Keeping to the right of the road, meandering on straight sections, These are the typical driving conditions that make our roads unsafe for other users.

I'm not talking about your speed - you could go far more faster in a GTI and yet be far more safer - but it is these driving habits shown in the video that make our roads hugely unsafe for other road users.

[VKumar]

After having driven in KA, TN and KL; I would say that the roads in KL are in a league of their own. But, then entered the Himanchal and Uttarakhand in the picture!

I would talk about two factors:
Slow drive - scenic route(s)

• Harsil - Gangotri stretch is out of the world IMO. You start from the wide Harsil valley, well paved moderate sized road - and the climb is all though dense deodar forests, multiple water streams and behind the forest lies the real beauty where you see water streams flowing down behind the dense deodar forest. In one picture you get to see 3 beautiful phenomena altogether - beautiful streams, dense deodar forest and suddenly vanishing trees - that's your tree line! <3
• Entire Kinnaur Road till Chitkul, all the way from Rampur Bushahr to Chitkul, hardly 20-30 kms of the route is a normal hill drive - else it's filled with the jaw dropping scenes throughout.
• Kaza - Rohtang, this is the route for adventure seekers, but again, my staple trip per year (this time it's under threat though). Everything is spoiled after Rohtang - thanks to over enthusiastic tourists.

Fun filled twisties:

• Jammu-Katra, for once forget Vaishno Devi and cover this section at 4 am. You will understand what I mean.
• Rishikesh - Chamba / Rishikesh - Srinagar Garhwal, the new road is wide and has nice sweeping corners, but traffic is heavy.
• Joshimath to Badrinath, wide road, nice corners and moderate to no traffic early morning! what else do we need?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Pune to Lavasa - Pure bliss of long stretching corners. Well marked and paved roads.

My god, how could I forget that? I remember my first time up that road, 10 years back for the previous-gen Volvo XC60 media drive. DerAlte was already there, but I had work so was at office all day. Left from Bombay in the evening and was doing the climb up at night. All alone, with not a soul on the mountain. Just me and my free-flow Honda Civic .

Damn, that was one of my best drives in Maharashtra just because of the combination of the night + empty ghat + freeflow exhaust reverberating through the hills.

It would be perfect to test all the media cars. Wish it was a bit closer to Bombay. Check out some tempting pictures here.

[Thilak29]

One that I experienced is Kolli Hills, amazing drive.
Scenic place, hope it remains virgin unlike rest of hill stations.

[roy_libran]

How has Gata Loops not figured on this thread yet!

Maybe also the only one that'll allow one to cut across the loops in almost a straight line, given the right vehicle.

[SJM1214]

Four pages and 50+ post on this thread and no mention of Ghata loops? Strange.

Ghata Loops is the name of the sharply winding and precipitous ascent in a steep and narrow zig-zag road nestled in the Western Himalayas in the Ladakh region of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

This roller coaster ride is a series of 22 hairpin bends that takes you to the top of Nakeela La. Its many twists turn and narrows can pose a challenge to even the most experienced drivers. It is considered as one of the tourist attractions of the Leh Manali Highway.

[Storm2.0]

The road to main Tirupati temple winding around the Tirumala hills offers a very pleasurable drive. More so because there's a seperate road for to and fro traffic. There's also dense vegetation accompanying the road road throughout, adding to the freshness in air.

The roads are always in supreme conditions and it's safe to drive during night time because of strong and rigid barriers on the edges with lots of reflectors and reflector based warning symbols along the road.

[SJM1214]

Manali to Rohtang pass road also has its fair share of Twisting & Turning roads.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

i) Small ghat but a highly involving, even borderline dangerous one : Neral-Matheran. This one will definitely bring some sweat drops to even the most experienced brows. Not recommended for the newbie car driver.

I will vouch for this route . Went there once with my late Guru - DB Sir, while we were testing a mule. He being an ex-rally guy was going flat out on the stretch, while it was raining and wet outside, me inside the car had wet pants (a trainee then).

Spike

[Omkar]

The limited number of race tracks in our country is why we have to make do with these roads (I'm not promoting speeding on public roads).

I recently rode from Dehradun to Mussoorie and that was quite an experience. Even the roads further from Mussoorie towards some of the tourist points consists of smooth stretches of tarmac with plenty of winding turns. These roads are a mix of hairpins, slow and fast bending turns that keep things interesting.

If you start early in the morning, you will find them empty which is great for cars. Roads are narrow, with two-way traffic, so you have to be careful during the day. Bikes are fun all day long!

P.S. I was on a rented Himalayan, and couldn't wake up early in the morning, so that worked out great for me.

[JayKis]

Originally Posted by dealer

Please share your favorite bits of our road network that leave you grinning as you navigate through them

You must have heard of Lavasa, India's largest hill city near Pune which caught itself in the legal turmoil and never took off as intended.

It has a wonderful road which goes from Temghar Dam to the City of Lavasa. It is a riders dream as well as nightmare. I had found my inner calling every time I hit Circuit de Lavasa. Hit it every Saturday early morning with a bunch of rider buddies for nearly 5 years and was good fun, be it Rain, Shine or Pain. Kept me alive, really alive for the rest of the week running through the daily chores of office and the demands of being a husband.



Lavasa has its limitations. It’s a public road but this patch has no one living in between. It is deserted in the early hours of morning before the then Lavasa employees used to arrive by 8 am. It has 55 corners in 7.2 kilometres. Has all types of corners – Left, right, Sweeping, decreasing, uphill, downhill, U-turns everything. If Laguna Seca has a 2 storey fall, Lavasa is probably half as wide, has a 5 storey fall followed by a U-turn! Lavasa takes no prisoners. You goof up, you could be dead. It is a test of the nuts that that connect the saddle to the handlebars. Riders have died and bikes have been totalled. So in Lavasa, you cant ride at 100 percent of your abilities. You need to keep something in reserve for those unforeseen circumstances which could keep you still on the tarmac or throw you down the mountain.

Here is a video of one of our rides. Hope you enjoy it! (Its initially a bit foggy with all the sun falling on the camera, then it clears up nicely after the 3 min mark!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM_wa4dCnpY&t=11s

Its an absolute bliss to ride in the rainy season!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsskkwZMTnk